Book Image

BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints

By : Rodolfo Giometti
Book Image

BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints

By: Rodolfo Giometti

Overview of this book

BeagleBone is a microboard PC that runs Linux. It can connect to the Internet and can run OSes such as Android and Ubuntu. BeagleBone is used for a variety of different purposes and projects, from simple projects such as building a thermostat to more advanced ones such as home security systems. Packed with real-world examples, this book will provide you with examples of how to connect several sensors and an actuator to the BeagleBone Black. You’ll learn how to give access to them, in order to realize simple-to-complex monitoring and controlling systems that will help you take control of the house. You will also find software examples of implementing web interfaces using the classical PHP/HTML pair with JavaScript, using complex APIs to interact with a Google Docs account, WhatsApp, or Facebook. This guide is an invaluable tutorial if you are planning to use a BeagleBone Black in a home automation project.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Final test


To test the prototype, I used some tricks to simulate the washing machine and the light in the room. The washing machine can be easily simulated by an audio/video played on the host PC with a reasonable volume level, while the room light on/off status can be simulated by using a small cup to cover the light sensor.

To set up all peripherals and drivers, we can use all the preceding commands or the SYSINIT.sh script as follows:

root@beaglebone:~# ./SYSINIT.sh
done!

Note

This command can be found in the chapter_05/SYSINIT.sh file in the book's example code repository

As an initial state (IDLE), we should cover the light sensor (to simulate that the light is off) and we should stop the video/audio player (to simulate that the washing machine is off). Then, we have to set a low threshold level into the configuration file for both sound and light detection and a very short timeout (5 seconds) in order to speed up the test. The following is my configuration file:

root@beaglebone:~# cat config...